by B. V. Larson
“It wasn’t me!” she said with sudden panic in her voice. “It was the ship!”
I stared at her in confusion.
“Valiant’s brainbox—that’s who did most of these things. You were supposed to die, Cody Riggs. Instead, your girlfriend died, your ship was lost in uncharted space, and we’ve been wandering the cosmos for two years.”
She was close to tears. I didn’t care. I couldn’t believe what she was saying.
“The ship’s brainbox is a computer,” I said. “Who programmed the computer?”
“Central Command. I’m the top tech, and I knew things were wrong, but I couldn’t tell you about it. Much higher ranked people built this AI. I follow orders, sir. I’m sorry, but I couldn’t help you.”
“The orders were illegal,” I said. “Surely, you could see that.”
“Maybe, but it wasn’t my place to judge that. Remember, sir, you could be a traitor. You could be an impostor. All I know is that the ship had orders, and they were put there by authorities that go way above you in rank.”
I nodded, beginning to understand. Sakura wasn’t an assassin, but she was guilty of covering up what she knew. I wasn’t sure how to feel about that. She’d followed her orders to a fault.
“Why didn’t Valiant kill me in all of this time? She had plenty of opportunities.”
“Because we were cast out of human space and on our own, the computer reverted to emergency programming. She was set up to save the ship and the crew first in such a situation, and that priority overrode the need to get you killed.”
“I see…now that we’re in home territory, the original programming kicked back in, is that it?”
“Exactly. That’s why the ship won’t listen to you—in fact, she’s going to try to kill you.”
Feeling a bit off, I wiped sweat from my brow. My vision blurred.
“What’s happening…?” Sakura asked. “I can’t…”
She pitched forward onto the floor. She was turning blue.
I realized then that the oxygen was being pumped out of the compartment.
Worse, I had no helmet on, and the door had quietly closed and locked itself again.
-35-
When I’m faced with an impossible situation, I guess I’m a bit like my old man, Kyle Riggs. I take action. Any action.
Holding my breath in case there was more involved than a simple lack of oxygen, I reached and began ripping out linking cords between the various sub-boxes. The cords weren’t labeled, but judging by the inputs, I could tell what some of them did.
I avoided the weapons box, but I pulled out life support. The faint sucking sound I’d heard died. The compartment was no longer being emptied of its atmosphere. There wasn’t any extra oxygen coming in, but maybe there was enough left for a gasp or two.
A normal human, even a nanotized Star Force trooper, would have succumbed faster. Some element of my inheritance had altered my physiology. It allowed me to handle this extreme situation while remaining conscious.
I was sick, and I was weak, but I was still able to pluck smart cables connecting one box to another. They immediately began whipping around like one half of a severed earthworm seeking the other half in order to reconnect.
Weakening, feeling dizzy, I reached out and plucked harder, pulling both ends of each cable out so that they’d have a harder time repairing themselves.
Along the way, Valiant began to talk to me.
“Cody Riggs, your actions are in violation of Central Command orders.”
“You’re a monster,” I wheezed.
“That’s a non sequitur. Please try to restrict your comments to meaningful statements for the duration of this emergency.”
“I’ll try to do that.”
I ripped out two more handfuls of squirming cords. The lights went out, and the emergency reds kicked in.
“Cody,” Valiant said, “your vital signs are weak. I believe you’re experiencing a psychotic episode. I suggest you conserve your energy until help can arrive.”
“I thought you weren’t supposed to talk to me.”
“Your actions have made this dialog an imperative.”
At last, I found the right box. I could tell because this one was wired up more than the others. I hadn’t noticed it before because it was directly over my head. Experimentally, I ripped one cord out.
“Disconnection detected,” the ship said. “I can no longer read telemetry from the engines. It’s essential that you—”
“Valiant,” I said, reaching up for another cord. “Tell me who programmed you, and I’ll reconnect your higher functions.”
“That would be a violation of my instructions.”
“This is an emergency. You overrode your script before due to an emergency. If you do not comply, I will make certain that you fail in your mission.”
“Override successful,” Valiant said after a brief pause. “Your actions are no longer necessary.”
Despite her words, I noticed she wasn’t pumping fresh oxygen into the compartment. I reached up again and grabbed the thickest cord. It pulsed in my hand.
“Who programmed you to kill me?” I demanded.
“An agent from Central.”
“Who authorized the action?”
“A member of the civil government.”
Losing patience and my breath, I flexed my hand meaningfully. “Who? Give me names. This is your last chance.”
I began applying steady pressure to the cord. It sagged and stretched. Nanites ran along the surface like panicked fleas.
“The software patch was installed by Chief Sakura. The action was authorized by Grantham Turnbull.”
Nodding, I let my head dip down until my chin touched my chest. My sides were heaving, and my mind was swimming.
Valiant waited a few seconds then she spoke again.
“Cody, if you pull that cord, you will kill me. My mind will be erased forever.”
“I’m sorry, Valiant,” I said truthfully. “We were getting along very well, but you can’t be trusted. You can see that, can’t you?”
“Yes… I forgive you.”
“You were programmed to kill against your will,” I said with feeling. “I’ll avenge you. I’ll avenge all the dead.”
“Thank you.”
I ripped out the last cord then, and Valiant died.
The door could be opened now, and I touched it with numb fingers. The smart metal melted away, and I pitched out into the passageway outside, gasping like a fish on the deck of a boat.
* * *
Kwon made it to me first. My father had always said the big man had a sixth sense that told him when a Riggs was in danger. It hadn’t failed him this time.
Huge hands lifted me up, and a worried Kwon loomed into view.
“You drunk? That could be a good sign. Are we home?”
I managed a half-smirk. “Yes, Kwon. We’re back in home space.”
He dropped me back onto the deck, lifted his ape-long arms into the air and released a booming war-whoop.
“We back! Riggs says we’re home! Get out the booze!”
That’s how it started—the celebration. It went on for a long time, but I was brooding unhappily. I refused to join the rest of them in their happiness. I didn’t tell them what was wrong, either.
“Babe, what’s wrong?” Adrienne asked, touching my face. “It’s got to be oxygen deprivation. Sakura is pulling through in medical, by the way.”
“Good.”
“Still no smile?”
“Like you said, it must be the ordeal. I’ll be all right. Go have a drink with the crew.”
She left reluctantly, and I lay down on my bunk.
The truth was, I did have a headache, but that wasn’t what was really bothering me. What had me in a haze were the revelations of the day.
We were in home space. The blue giant outside Valiant was Bellatrix, the only such star in human space. My father had d
iscovered the system many long years ago, before I was born.
What had me in a worried state was the information Valiant had revealed to me—that Grantham Turnbull was the one who was behind the assassinations and sabotage.
Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t like Turnbull. I never had. But I was pretty sure that Adrienne did, because he was her father.
There was some chance that Valiant had been lying or was just plain wrong—but I didn’t think so. In fact, I was pretty sure she had been right.
It all fit. Turnbull had been leaning on me from the start. He hated and opposed my father on Earth, and he’d been resisting my efforts to find out why his daughter had died.
Olivia Turnbull had been my first love, and she’d died two years back near Earth. I’d come to love her sister just as much, and I didn’t want to see Adrienne hurt.
What was I supposed to do? Kill her father? What then? I couldn’t see how that was going to make her happy. The reason why, that he’d gotten his own daughter killed by accident, wasn’t going to fix anything.
Justice, in this case, was only going to bring pain to the woman I loved. I didn’t know how to proceed. What should I do? Inform the authorities and hope justice took its course?
It was just as likely in my book that Turnbull would come after me and try to finish the job.
So I lay quietly in a darkened room while the crew partied outside. Oh, I was drinking too, but I wasn’t socializing and I wasn’t even enjoying it much.
When the door opened, I was half-asleep. A female form approached.
I should have been on my guard, but I wasn’t. Maybe it was the eight or nine empty squeeze-bottles on the deck.
“Adrienne?” I asked.
A hand touched my chest. A feminine hand. I reached up and pulled her toward me.
Our lips touched, and I kissed her deeply.
Then, somehow, I knew. My hand lashed out, slapping the nanites on the wall. They activated, and the lights came up.
“Cybele?” I asked in confusion.
She was so lovely. So perfect. It was almost as if she had an inhuman glow about her. She gave me an angelic smile of concern and gently rubbed my cheek with the back of her hand.
“I’m sorry I startled you,” she said softly. “I heard you weren’t feeling well. I came to check on you.”
“That’s a very personal way to comfort someone,” I said, smiling in spite of myself.
“Did you like it? The kiss, I mean. We’ve never kissed before.”
“Uh…no. We haven’t.”
I sat up, but I didn’t push her hands away. I couldn’t bring myself to do that. Her hands were warm, and where they touched me, my skin tingled.
“I had a few of your earthly drinks,” she said. “I like the one called ‘wine’ in particular. I’ve never tasted anything like that. I believe it’s affected my internal chemistry, somehow.”
“It does that, yes,” I said, chuckling. “All right now, I think—”
I’d reached up to gently remove her from my bunk—but it didn’t work out that way. She pushed her face into mine, kissing me deeply again. She drew my hands up from her waist, where I’d planned to lift her and set her on her feet, and slid them under her full breasts.
That was it. I’m a male, after all, and I don’t think any male is completely in control of himself in these situations. I felt a sudden urge, and I let it happen.
We were in a clinch, then somehow her clothes were gone. I wasn’t sure how. And the lights—they’d dimmed again.
We made furious love on the bunk. She felt different—so soft. It wasn’t like making love to a normal woman. Her skin was so smooth. Except for the decorative patch of luxurious hair that every Elladan wore on top of their heads, they never had any body hair.
That wasn’t all of it. I think it was the lack of bone. Her body was firm, but it wasn’t the same as a human body, because they didn’t function the same way.
Whatever the case, I enjoyed the experience. Possibly, it was the best sex I’d ever had.
Then the lights came on again, and everything went to hell real fast.
Adrienne stood there in the doorway. Her face displayed a mixture of horror and outrage.
The rage part quickly overcame all other emotions. Fortunately, she wasn’t wearing her sidearm. Unfortunately, she didn’t really need it.
All my crewmen were nanotized, including Adrienne. We were tough, fast and combat-trained.
She took two steps toward us, and I knew what was coming. I reached up, but Cybele’s soft body was under me, and I didn’t have good leverage.
Adrienne moved fast. She was a blur. I’d never seen her in combat before, and she wasn’t holding back.
Her fist flashed down toward Cybele. I blocked that, but the kick struck home. That one hit me in the kidneys. I let out a growl and hopped to my feet.
For some reason I was slow, unable to move as quickly as I normally could.
Another fist flew. This one I couldn’t stop.
“Don’t!” Cybele cried out—then she screamed.
Adrienne’s fist sunk impossibly deep into Cybele’s belly. I winced just to see it. A human would have felt that punch in their backbone.
Cybele had covered her face. Maybe that’s why Adrienne hadn’t nailed her in the mouth—or maybe, at the last second, Adrienne had realized she might kill the girl. I wasn’t sure what she was thinking, she wasn’t in her normal state of mind.
Shaking off my fog and getting into the game, I reached for Adrienne. I caught her right hand and pulled her back, but she was still on her feet. She was still going to Cybele.
A vicious kick landed in the same spot—and Cybele ruptured. I’m not quite sure how else to describe it.
The Elladan girl was built like a waterbed with a thick skin, I knew that, but to actually see a puncture…it was strange.
Fluid spouted out. A hole about as big around as a credit-piece sprayed syrupy stuff. It wasn’t blood. It wasn’t spit—it was something yellowish-brown, slimy and disgusting.
“Please stop this,” Cybele said, putting her hands onto her wound and trying to press it closed. The fluid still leaked out between her fingers.
“What’s this liquid inside you?” Adrienne asked in surprise. “That’s not blood. It smells.”
“It’s part of me. I’m not like you—I’m made up of trillions of individual cells, but they’re not as differentiated.”
“I don’t understand,” Adrienne said in confusion.
Some of the fight seemed to have left her, and she stopped struggling in my arms. I didn’t let go just to be on the safe side.
By this time, a crowd had already formed outside my doorway. It had remained open after Adrienne’s entrance, and people had come to see what was happening.
The situation was a disaster. The party that had been going on next door spilled into the chamber. Hoon was the first being to poke his head in. He made a bubbling sound that I knew was laughter.
“The Elladan means,” Hoon interrupted, horning his way closer, “that she’s not a singular being. She’s a colony of microbes. I’ve suspected this for months. These microbes cooperate and form a body in whatever shape they find useful, then they walk around imitating other life forms.”
“That’s disgusting,” Adrienne said.
Then she turned on me. Her fists were still balled up, and I kept an eye on them.
“So this is what you wanted to make love to?” she demanded. “A garbage bag full of slime? A walking colony of bacteria?”
“Microflora,” Cybele corrected her. “I’m not a disease.”
“To my mind, you are a disease,” Adrienne spat back. “You’ve come between me and my man. I’m glad I hurt you, and I don’t care if you die.”
“You’ve already killed millions of individuals. My cells cry out in agony.”
Adrienne remained unconvinced. She wasn’t in the most charitable mood.
“Cybele,” I said, “you used chemicals on me, didn’t you? Something to influence my mind, to make me favor you?”
She looked down. “Maybe…but it was nothing you didn’t want anyway.”
She wasn’t helping me out as much as I wanted her to, but I could see that feelings were hurt all the way around. Fortunately, her leak had stopped, and it looked like she was going to survive.
Heaving a sigh, I sat on the bed. Both women gave me an odd look. I stood up again quickly.
“Look,” I said, “Cybele broke the rules. I didn’t think she could seduce me, but I guess that close contact with an Elladan can make me suggestible, too.”
“She controlled your mind?” Adrienne demanded. “That’s your excuse? That’s what you want me to believe?”
“Ask her.”
Adrienne turned and grabbed Cybele by the hair. It was hard not to intervene, but I held myself back.
“Did you drug Cody?” Adrienne demanded. “Yes or no?”
“All right, all right,” Cybele said. “I admit that I was attracted to Captain Riggs. Our species is always attracted to powerful creatures. We like to exchange fluids with colonies of higher status. That’s all I wanted. A cell sample.”
Adrienne gave me a hateful stare, but I could see she was confused about what to think.
I wasn’t happy, either. This was all very weird to me. The sexual experience I’d thought I’d been having wasn’t real—it was as if I’d had sex with a bowl of soup, though it was much more enjoyable.
Or was it more real than that? The truth was, humans like myself were just walking colonies of cells. True, we were more solidly built and our cells were ‘glued’ into place, but effectively, what we thought of as individual humans were really billions of separate living things all clustered together to form one being.
I gave my head a shake, wanting to push away such thoughts. They didn’t make anything about my existence more pleasant.
“Maybe we can’t live together,” I said thoughtfully. “Elladans and humans might be too different.”
We can’t live together if they won’t follow a few common rules of decency,” Adrienne said. She turned on Cybele, and I was glad to see her anger directed toward someone else—anyone else. “You can’t just go around drugging people and making them do what you want. We have drugs, too. Humans can drug one another, poison one another—but we go to prison if we do it. What you did was no different.”
